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"I'll be positioned in the same position by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if the discussion was successful, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another chat next year.

There is rarely ever time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was much longer than typical, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his fellow MPs are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and oust him this year.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I intend to guide the party," he said.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should one of his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to improve. He aimed to convince the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government enacted during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His core point is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a bolder approach, with greater political vision, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, should he consider a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing clear political dangers as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Critics wanted him to denounce it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been simmering pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is breaking his promise never to try to reverse the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will please some on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to